+ Grob *me = unsmob_grob (smob);
+ int start = robust_scm2int (start_scm, 0);
+ int end = robust_scm2int (end_scm, INT_MAX);
+
+ if (request_suicide (me, start, end))
+ return ly_interval2scm (Interval ());
+
+ return ly_interval2scm (Axis_group_interface::pure_group_height (me, start, end));
+}
+
+/* there is probably a way that doesn't involve re-implementing a binary
+ search (I would love some proper closures right now) */
+bool find_in_range (SCM vector, int low, int hi, int min, int max)
+{
+ if (low >= hi)
+ return false;
+
+ int mid = low + (hi - low) / 2;
+ int val = scm_to_int (scm_c_vector_ref (vector, mid));
+ if (val >= min && val <= max)
+ return true;
+ else if (val < min)
+ return find_in_range (vector, mid+1, hi, min, max);
+ return find_in_range (vector, low, mid, min, max);
+}
+
+bool
+Hara_kiri_group_spanner::request_suicide (Grob *me, int start, int end)
+{
+ if (!to_boolean (me->get_property ("remove-empty")))
+ return false;
+
+ bool remove_first = to_boolean (me->get_property ("remove-first"));
+ if (!remove_first && start <= 0)
+ return false;
+
+ SCM important = me->get_property ("important-column-ranks");
+ if (scm_is_vector (important))
+ {
+ int len = scm_c_vector_length (important);
+ if (find_in_range (important, 0, len, start, end))
+ return false;
+ }
+ else /* build the important-columns-cache */
+ {
+ extract_grob_set (me, "items-worth-living", worth);
+ vector<int> ranks;
+
+ for (vsize i = 0; i < worth.size (); i++)
+ {
+ Interval_t<int> iv = worth[i]->spanned_rank_interval ();
+ for (int j = iv[LEFT]; j <= iv[RIGHT]; j++)
+ ranks.push_back (j);
+ }
+ vector_sort (ranks, less<int> ());
+ uniq (ranks);
+
+ SCM scm_vec = scm_c_make_vector (ranks.size (), SCM_EOL);
+ for (vsize i = 0; i < ranks.size (); i++)
+ scm_vector_set_x (scm_vec, scm_from_int (i), scm_from_int (ranks[i]));
+ me->set_property ("important-column-ranks", scm_vec);
+
+ return request_suicide (me, start, end);
+ }
+
+ return true;